please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
This ‘Spoons’ has a large open bar area, and upon arrival looking around at the inebriated parents with push chairs, it’s welcoming to children.
There is a regularly changing selection of real ales. On my recent visit I was intrigued by the taste of a ‘Yachtsman’ and also of ‘Butcombe’.
I find that my work colleagues and I often find ourselves here for the weekly ‘Pub Quiz’ this is every Monday at 1930. There are a wide variety of questions of varying difficulty. There is also an intermission half way through for one to seek sustenance from the wide selection of microwavable food on the menu, for which 20% discount is offered to quiz participants.
The intermission is often the most exciting part of the quiz night. Usually filled with the screeching arguments of unemployed couples who have frequented the bar since opening that morning. But don’t let that put you off this is a very secure public house as the Kent Constabulary often patrol and remove patrons.
If you are looking for a wide selection of hand pumped ales, while you participate in a quiz feeling like you are sat in the audience of Jeremy Kyle this is the place for you.
|
First pub of a 4 pub tick in Maidstone on Saturday afternoon.
Started off in this large 'spoons very close to Maidstone East station.
Busy on Saturday lunchtime with a mix of regulars, locals and football fans (Maidstone United were at home)
10 hand pumps offering 9 beers as 2 pumps had Ruddles on. My pint of Springhead's, The Leveller @ 4.8% was a decent poured pint but it's not a great beer.
Rugby Union (Italy vs England) came on the television so the curtains were drawn and volume increased, this was my cue to leave and walk to the Pilot.
|
I like the Society Rooms and regularly meet a mate here every Thursday afternoon for a couple of pints before wandering up the road to the Flower Pot. At £1.99 the beer is cheap and always in perfect condition. The place is clean and quiet (during the afternoon) although there's always a small group of noisy, middle-aged knuckledraggers with a child's pushchair to spoil things. Lacking in atmosphere? Well with very large plate glass windows - it used to be a furniture store in a previous life - it's never going to be cosy and intimate - but it's very popular and if having a pleasant chat with a friend is your thing, this is one of the better pubs in town.
|
Modern-looking Spoons that we were lucky to get a seat at early Friday evening, but worth persevering as the Whitstable Stout was very good, and staff friendly as plentiful (my usual Spoons experience, to be fair). Food was adequate.
|
Large open plan JDW that gets very busy.
Next to station (West) and not far from the footy ground.
There’s a game on today so the replica shirts are gathering.
All guest ales £1.99 a pint
|
went in mid-week afternoon try a st peters brewery goldeneye beer which was a good beer but a slight tang to it.asked the barstaff for directions to travelodge were very good directions and found easily thanks to the bar staff.a 1 room spoons but a good one
|
It has a far too large an open plan drinking area making it horribly noisy of a weekend. I try to avoid the place despite it's great range of reasonably priced ales.
|
Ok. so I don't expect much from a 'Spoons, but to be refused food (I was not ordering alcohol by the way) at 11am on a Sunday morning because I supposedly look under 25 (I am actually 26), while all my friends got served (just food that is) was humilating and just plain stupid. The barmaid was happy to serve me a bottle of mineral water though - whats the difference? The other barmaid was miserable as sin so I didn't even bother in the end. A crap, atmosphere-free pub that I wouldn't normally choose to go to anyway.
|
I've put this off for long enough...
Compared to my home town's other 'spoons,this is the ONLY choice.
'Tis a bizarre glass fronted office space and wins no beauty prizes and
as pointed out earlier,avoid entirely at night over the weekend,but weekdays,afternoons etc is fine!
Food as you imagine is exactly the same as all chains,bland but fairly ok for microwaved burgers etc.
Beer tends to be more than adaquate...in fact the whole reason I'm adding this scribe,todays gems were Salopian Prohibition and Cotleigh Buzzard plus Westons Cider on draught.Last week was Brentwood Spooky Moon....all were in fine condition,staff knew what they were doing and the punters 'normal'!Belive me it's a relief compared to the usual town flotsam and jetsam...
|
I don't mind this pub. The bar staff are reasonably friendly and the food is OK, The beer is excellent and the atmosphere is good too. Can a little loud however
|
I'm going to have to change my review. I called in there yesterday (Tuesday lunchtime) and waited ten minutes to be served. Dithering people ordering food, unably to make their minds up. Some of the pump clips turned away but still some real ale to choose from. "Sorry, no real ale" I was told. What? How on earth could that happen? A dozen handpumps and no real ale? And why on earth weren't all the pump clips turned around to tell customers to stop wasting their bloody time? An understaffed shambles yesterday.
|
I really like the Society Rooms. The beer is ALWAYS in perfect condition which not too many pubs can boast and provided I visit during the day, it's fine. Weekend evenings though are just terrible (for me). I went once on a Friday night but never again. The bar was five deep with spotty youfs buying 'shots' of all sorts of rubbish and the awful din in the place was too much for me. Daytimes - fine. Evening - no thanks. I also think the food is OK. You get what you pay for, which is fine with me.
|
This was something of a by-numbers 'Spoons as far as I could tell on a recent visit; possibly more memorable for its modern glassy appearance than than anything else. That said the beer sampled was both varied and in correct condition, and as always, sold at highly competitive prices. I didn't try the food but one has to learn to tailor one's expectations to be realistic in JDW outlets. If it's gourmet grub you're after, naturally avoid this place, but for a quick beer and bite it should suit well enough.
The issue which might preclude any enthusiasm for a return visit? Lack of atmosphere. I left feeling that it had really made no impression on me one way or t'other, but I suppose that is preferable to having been left with an unpleasant experience to dwell on.
|
Sorry, Alexboorman, but if you want decent food then why, as ex-kitchen staff are you surprised? I am not ex-KP, but even I know the only things that are cooked on the premises of most pubs are the deep fried stuff, everything else is microwaveable, as everyone knows.
My brother was a chef in a pub/Hotel in Manchester and my brother-in-law delivers frozen stuff to pubs and restaurants in London & South-East so I know about this.
|
It's a Wetherspoons. Within reason, you know what you're getting before you walk through the door. If you don't like JDW, go somewhere else...
It's not the best Wetherspoons I've been in, but it's a long way from being the worst.
|
You have to be orange to get a pint!
|
I'm not a regular frequenter of Wetherspoon's establishments, but was in here briefly with some friends the other night and found it quite a pleasant place for a couple of quick pints. Busy and noisy, as you'd expect on a friday night, but everything seemed well under control.
|
poo
|
how anyone can call this food good value for money is beyond me. it costs on average around a quid to produce put a meal on a plate in wetherspoons as someone who used to work in a wetherspoons kitchen. not only does that mean that you are paying at least a 250% mark up in most cases, but the food is very poor quality, all microwaveable (except for obvious thing like chips). hardly value when you think about it.
|
One of the better-run Wetherspoons and recently fitted-out. The actually do seem to bar undesirables, which makes for a better atmosphere - and being the other end of town it doesn't seem to attract the pikey crowd you tend to get in Muggletons. Just started quiz nights on Mondays. Have eaten there several times and can't really fault anything. Much better than your average spoons.
|
A typical Wetherspoons pub, large, cheap, soulless and sterile. Also the last two times I've eaten there the food has not been good. It will do but it's not great.
|
My parents often went in here for their curry on a Thursday which used to start when the pub opened. I decided to take them a few weeks ago for a curry and it now turns out they actually don't start the curry until 3pm, rather bizarre to start it after the lunchtime??? Anyway, it was 2pm and we asked if they could make an exception and explained that my sister was in hospital and we'd just come down to do some things in the town and needed some lunch. The female barstaff then called over the manager stating, "can you explain to this woman that we don't do curries until 3pm". Patronising cow and I told her not patronise my mum, that she wasn't stupid and simple just because she was 60 odd years old and that she had already explained to us and didn't need a manager to repeat what she just had. Scared what they would do to our food if we now ordered something else, we left
anonymous - 28 Nov 2006 11:50 |
Not the best pub in town but it is sufficient to start an evening out. The food availbe is always top notch and at extremely reasonable prices. The courtyard/garden is very quaint and provides a good atmosphere. This is far better than the other Wetherspoons in town, although that is not exactly difficult.
|
Nothing special, but the usual wide choice of beers and good value meals that you would expect to find in a Wetherspoons. Handy for Maidstone East railway station if you are waiting for a train.
|
Your standard Wetherspoons really - huge and soulless but dirt cheap and with a reasonable selection of beer. It also seems pleasantly aggro-free but gets seriously marked down for their bizarre ID policy. Last time I went the place was rammed with teenagers, but my wife was refused service (she's 27). All very peculiar.
|
